Hot this week – April 6 to 12

This week’s hot list features fierce raptors, gut-busting comedy and sweet, sweet maple sugar. Here are 15 ways to do the week right…

La Riviere Raptor Festival

Apr 11
La Riviere & Community Recreation Centre, La Riviere

Get up close and personal and gaze into the eyes of real live raptors at the annual La Riviere Raptor Festival. This year’s theme is Feathered Friends and features two categories: raptors and non-raptors. Other highlights include kids’ activities, guided walking tours, food concessions, door prizes and much more.

Winnipeg Comedy Festival

Apr 6 to 12
Various venues, Winnipeg

This year’s Winnipeg Comedy Festival is cheeky, with subtle notes of whimsy and wit, and a bold, sometimes bawdy finish. No matter your preferred flavour profile, you’ll get your fill of full-bodied laughs at this year’s festival, where they uncork another vintage year of superior stand-up and gags.

Sugaring Off Festival

Apr 11 to 12
Saint-Pierre-Jolys

Celebrate the arrival of spring and the production of Manitoba maple syrup at the Sugaring Off Festival. Enjoy great traditional food and music, maple sugar production, historical interpretations, horse-drawn rides, activities for the kids, and more.

Maple Syrup Festival

April 11
McCreary

Celebrate McCreary’s proud heritage and traditions at the Manitoba Maple Syrup Festival! This family-friendly event has a fun-filled day planned for all ages. Take part in tree tapping, eat your way up and down a stack of pancakes or enjoy many indoor and outdoor activities.

Canadian Museum For Human Rights

Open Tuesday to Sunday
The Forks

Contemplate inspring stories of struggle and triumph at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. This new national museum strives to create inspiring encounters with human rights, by engaging you in an immersive, interactive experience that offers both the inspiration and tools to make a difference in the lives of others.

Brandon Wheat Kings

Apr 10, 11
Keystone Centre, Brandon

It’s the playoffs, baby! The Brandon Wheat Kings eliminated the Edmonton Oil Kings and will begin round two of the playoffs against the Regina Pats this weekend. The Wheat Kings, who beat the Pats in the opening round of last year’s playoffs, went 5-2-1-0 against Regina during the season series. Woohoo! Let’s go Wheat Kings!

The Hound of the Baskervilles at PTE

Apr 9 to 26
Prairie Theatre Exchange, Winnipeg

Catch a hilarious spoof on the world’s most famous detective at The Hound of the Baskervilles! An ancient family curse, a desolate moor, a spectral hound and a deranged killer on the loose. This rendition of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most celebrated tale, while mostly faithful to the original plot, is a cavalcade of characters, quick changes and sight gags, as Holmes and Watson investigate a suspicious death at Baskerville Hall in a zany, madcap telling of the classic tale.

Nest Fest

Apr 11 | 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Oak Hammock Marsh

Visit the Marsh to learn how you can build various nesting structures to attract birds, bats and butterflies to your yard. Participate in their special presentations and see different models of nesting structures to help you gather ideas and plans for building your own nesting structures.

Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre

Open daily
Morden

Trek out to Morden to see the largest collection of marine reptile fossils in Canada. If you like dinosaurs or sea monsters you will love “Bruce” and “Suzy” two gigantic mosasaurs, the fiercest of all the marine reptiles. Bruce is bigger than a T-Rex and just as scary. It’s because of these two that the Cretaceous seas were considered the most dangerous of all time.

Brandon Home and Leisure Show

Apr 10 to 12
Keystone Centre, Brandon

See the latest products in indoor and outdoor services and the best in exciting recreational fun crafts at the Brandon Home and Leisure Show. The show features over 165 exhibitors showcasing everything under the sun — all under one roof!

Assiniboine Park Zoo

Open daily
Assiniboine Park Zoo

Polar bears and monkeys and leopards, oh my! Say hello to all the beautiful wild animals at Assiniboine Park Zoo. The Zoo has over 80 park-like acres for you to explore and interact with wildlife species from around the world.

Bill Bannock Ice Fishing Derby Classic

Apr 11
Clearwater Lake, The Pas

Fishing for a good time? Then head out on beautiful Clearwater Lake for the Bill Bannock Classic Ice Fishing Derby! The derby is one of the largest in Manitoba. First prize is $25,000 cash and if you catch the tagged fish, Lonesome Mary, you instantly win $25,000.

Wanda Koop: VIEW from HERE

Feb 26 to May 31
Winnipeg Art Gallery

Wanda Koop’s new suite of paintings, VIEW from HERE, both affirms and disrupts two quite different genres: landscape and portraiture. Using ink and acrylic on canvas, these nine-by-seven-foot works use landscape tropes to compose immense and surreal human heads that seem to float in ambiguous space.

The Manitoba Museum

Photo by Paul Fleming (@lovethywalrus)

Open daily
The Manitoba Museum, Winnipeg

The Manitoba Museum is always full of new things to do and see. Here’s what’s on right now:

The interactive exhibit Real Pirates tells the true story of the Whydah — a real pirate ship that sank off the coast of Cape Cod nearly 300 years ago. Closes April 19!

The Planetarium is showing One World, One Sky: Big Bird’s Adventure, Attack of the Space Pirates and Wonders of the Universe.

The Woman in Black at MTC

Mar 19 to Apr 11
John Hirsch Mainstage, Winnipeg

Your spine will tingle and your heart will race when you watch The Woman in Black – one of the scariest stories to ever hit the stage. A tragedy has shattered the lives of two families. A young lawyer in Edwardian England is hired to oversee the sale of a remote country estate, and finds himself embroiled in a tragic mystery that has been haunting the property for years. Decades later, he engages an actor to recount the tale in an effort to exorcise the demons of his past.

Got a tip for a future Hot this week? Send us your suggestion and it might just make the list! Comment below or tweet us @travelmanitoba.